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Debating The Trial of KSM

Geneve Mantri of Amnesty International argued on "Washington Unplugged" Friday that trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a United States civil court, in Manhattan or elsewhere, can help the U.S. win over potential enemies.

"What we are really facing is a war of ideas and what we need to show to both the American people and the world is that the threat that we face is really not going to won by bombs and bullets its going to be won by the values we have and the laws we have," Mantri said.

CBS News Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford said some critics of the proposal to try the 9/11 mastermind in the U.S. court system argue that "it's a little late in the game to start bringing these guys in New York for a federal criminal trial."

"There is going to be a whole panoply of constitutional procedural arguments they are going to able to make," Crawford said. "The danger is if the judge doesn't grant [these exceptions] it waters down the system of protections to everyone. It perverts in some ways our system of justice."

I do not think it will be closed anytime soon but I do think the detention center will eventually be closed," the New York Times' David Sanger replied.

Crawford said no.

"I don't think Congress will give the money to the White House to get these guys up here," she said.

"I think the sad thing is Guantanamo is part of a system of keeping people without any legal overview," said Mantri. "And if we just move them to Illinois or somewhere else Gitmo is not really going to close its just gonna move."